Brian Epstein is born

On September 19th 1934, Beatles manager and good friend Brian Epstein was born in Rodney Street, Liverpool.

Epstein was of Jewish ancestry. His grandfather Isaac Epstein emigrated to Britain from Lithuania in the 1890s and when he brought the family to Liverpool Isaac founded NEMS, a musical store selling instruments and household appliances. In 1955 at age 21, Brian was made a director at NEMS and was eventually put in charge of the family's music store on Great Charlotte Street.

Epstein reportedly first heard about the Beatles when they appeared on the cover of Mersey Beat, a Liverpool music magazine sold in his store. According to Epstein a customer walked in off the street and asked for a copy of the single My Bonnie, which the Beatles had recorded with Tony Sheridan in Hamburg; this got Brian curious about the group.

Brian Epstein circa 1963.

The Beatles were regular performers at Liverpool's Cavern club and on November 9th 1961, Epstein arranged with the owner to watch the band perform.

"I was immediately struck by their music, their beat and sense of humor on stage - and, even afterwards, when I met them, I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started."- Brian Epstein

Two months later on December 3rd, Epstein arranged a meeting with the Beatles at NEMS and proposed the idea of becoming their manager. Shortly thereafter Epstein secured them an audition with Decca Records on January 1st 1962.

"I secured them an audition at Decca on New Year's Day, 1962. They came to London and stayed at the Royal Hotel paying 27 shillings a night for bed and breakfast. They were poor and I wasn't rich but we all celebrated with Rum, Scotch and Coke which was becoming a Beatle drink even then."- Brian Epstein

After Decca infamously rejected The Beatles, Brian arranged a meeting with George Martin of EMI Records.

"Well, the recording test came and went. The people that decide about these things at Decca said 'No'. Well, you can imagine I was more worried about what I was going to say to the boys, having built up their hopes. So I allowed myself a final 24 hours to exhaust the remaining disc companies and I booked into the Green Park Hotel. In the morning I took a cab to the EMI office block in Manchester Square, London, to meet the man who would within less than two years produce sixteen number one discs by my artists."- Brian Epstein